Love and music know no clefs
by Angel Or Muse
Summary: Christine, a bassist in her high school orchestra, is picked on and alone. Then the new kid, Erik, changes everything… but can music make things last between the oldschool nerd and the newschool jock?
1. Chapter 1

_Christine, a bassist in her high school orchestra, is picked-on and alone. Then the new kid, Erik, changes everything… but can things last between the old-school nerd and the new-school jock?_

**Chapter One:**

Christine walked to orchestra with a heavy heart. Her first relationship had just ended with her boyfriend, Roaul, dumping her right before homecoming. It was just two weeks away, and now she felt like the only girl at school without a date to the dance. On top of that, all of Roaul's friends were in orchestra, and she knew today's class would be yet another excuse to bring her hell on earth.

When she walked into the orchestra room, she greeted Mr. Barrett warmly; the warm-hearted old man had never been anything but kind to her, and she was extremely grateful to have that small comfort in a class like hers. She greeted a couple of the violinists, made some nice small-talk, and then took her bass off the rack. She pretended to be focusing on rosining her bow and setting the bass in its rockstop when the rest of the bass-section walked in.

The guys from her section, Mike, Scott, Alex, Eli, Ian, and Buck, were all older than her, although the youngest two were in her grade. Mike and Scott were freshman (as was Christine), while Eli, Buck, and Alex were seniors, and Ian was the only junior. They all had one thing in common; a love of picking on her. Christine could not go ten steps in the hall without hearing somebody throw an insult at her; usually one of the bassists.

When Mr. Barrett started class, the bass section started talking. They joked, they debated, they shared philosophies on life, but mostly they just talked. Today, Christine was the subject of choice.

"I heard he dumped you. Did you cry?" Scott asked, motioning towards his eyes as though it weren't obvious.

"Did you beg him to take you back?" It was Alex this time, and he turned to Eli and pretended to grovel and beg. Christine turned away, disgusted, trying not to break down in tears in front of the boys. The only one who ever cared if she cried was Mike, so he held back a little on taunting her. Buck thought it was his Christian duty to care, so he tried to be polite, but her tears really didn't affect him.

"I bet the only thing you'll miss is the sex, isn't it?" Eli hurled the insult at her like a weapon. They liked to joke about her being a whore, even during the most sensitive of situations, since it was the one thing she'd argue against. Ever since Christine told them that she planned on being a virgin until she was 25, they'd been hassling her, propositioning and harassing her for any kind of sex.

That was just too much. Christine put her bass down on its side, motioning to Mr. Barrett that she needed to go, and left the room as her eyes welled up with tears. She had to push past Mike, who moved as if to stop her, and saw the pained look in his eyes. She hurried down the hall, past the band lockers and the choir room door, but stopped short when she heard an incredible voice. She paused beside the door, leaning against the wall, and just listened for awhile. When the singing ceased, she stepped inside to compliment whoever had such an extraordinary voice, and saw _him_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

He looked up in surprise when he saw Christine, and she began to express her message.

"I…oh, I was listening to your voice- ah, your singing…in the hall, I was just walking past, and I…"

He smiled charmingly at her stammering, and she blushed. She never had a problem with talking to strangers, boys or new students (after all, she ran the introductory program for newly-enrolled students in her district), and she felt incredibly foolish. She smiled through her embarrassment to lighten the mood. He held out his hand for hers, and she was hesitant for a moment. She'd almost forgotten that some people greet others by shaking hands; she usually just nodded, which was the masculine greeting among boys.

"I'm Erik." He informed her while they shook hands.

"Christine." She said before glancing at the clock. She'd been gone for almost ten minutes, and Mr. Barrett would be really worried. She excused herself with a "see you around", and hurried back to class.

When she got to the orchestra room, Mr. Barrett was waiting outside the door. He smiled at her, asked if she was okay, and then asked her not to be gone for so long next time. She grinned sheepishly and nodded before returning to class.

Upon leaving the orchestra room for lunch, Christine realized that she'd left her English folder behind, probably at her locked, and had urgent need of it (seeing as English was after lunch, and she had to write half an essay in twenty minutes). She jogged up to her music locked and began to riffle through the stacks of music, notebooks and folders until she heard a low voice.

"Looking for this?" Came from behind her, and she turned to locate the voice when she was promptly backhanded, sending her to the floor. Standing above her was a handful of orchestra kids, mostly bassists. One stepped towards her, lifting her by her forearms, and hissed "We saw you talking to Barrett… did you tattle on us? Get us in trouble with teach' over a little bitty insult? Huh?"

He slapped her again, then punched her hard in the stomach. She fell to the floor again, and stayed on her knees for a couple of seconds. If they hadn't surprised her, she'd have dealt out a black eye to each one of them.

Suddenly one of them cried out in pain… then another… then the rest of them ran off. Christine looked up from under her full eyelashes to see Erik hauling both of the injured boys up by their collars and shoving them off down the hall. Then he extended his hand to her for the second time in one day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

Christine couldn't believe what was happening to her. She was walking around school with one of the nicest people she'd ever met, listening to him talk about his life and interests, while girls looked at her with jealousy! No girl in school had ever been jealous of her before, but Erik made everything seem more glorified and glamorous. The past two days had been like something out of a dream, and she'd barely realized that is was an orchestra day again.

As Erik walked to the Music Hall with her, her heart began to sink into her stomach again. He glanced at her expression before sighing and running his hands through his hair.

"Christine... are you going to be okay? I mean, after class? Those kids-"

"Erik,it will be just fine, they just surprised me, that's all, it normally wouldn't have happened without more of a fight. Plus, I'm sure you have something going on after classes on a Friday."

"Oh, football practice, I almost forgot. I could skip it and walk you out of school instead-"

"No, really, I'll be fine. Have a nice workout." As soon as the words had escaped her mouth, Erik leaned down and gave her a hug. Surprised, she inhaled and jerked back for a second before relaxing. He let go and walked down to the chorus room, leaving a shocked Christine staring after him.

As she entered the orchestra room, she decided she'd have to talk to him. She knew that it was perfectly normal for friends to hug; her friends did it to each other all the time, but not to her. She had a huge problem with physical contact since boys were constantly harassing her about sex, assault, and forms of physical humiliation. She didn't let people touch her, because then there was no danger, and nothing to worry about. Erik was new, but she'd have to tell him before somebody found out.

She pulled her bass off the rack and carried it across the room to the bass section, setting up with her rockstop and stand. Christine looked up when she noticed that nobody was talking.

"What?" She asked the guys, waiting for some degrading comments about her hair or clothes, which was usually what they were waiting for. This time was different, however.

"So the slut's got a new boy-toy so soon?" Scott asked, looking her up and down with contempt.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:**

Christine had barely made it out of class with her pride intact after the boys had seen her hugging Erik. They called her a whore, a slut, and any other insult they could think up, but today her eyes stayed dry. She kept her chin up proudly, and brushed off their insults with a quick reply of "you're just jealous". This elicted nothing but hoots of laughter from the bassists, but again she did not care. She felt stragely proud of her physical contact with Erik, and she decided then and there that she didn't care who'd seen it.

When she left orchestra, Christine walked past the Chorus room on the way to her orchestra locker...and stopped. She was again drawn in by that voice... this time it was Erik in a duet with another... a _girl_. Christine peeked around the corner of the doorway and saw a tall, curvacius brunette standing close to Erik. The soprano was swaying provocatively whilst singing with him, but he had his eyes closed. Christine was so enwraped in his voice that she didn't have a chance to feel anything but elation at the moment.

That changed moments later, once she pulled herself away from the scene before her and started walking towards her locker. She felt a strange emotion...pure jealousy. How dare that beautiful flirt sing with Erik, _her_ Erik? She knew she was being erational, but she couldn't help it. With her librarion-style glasses and updo, she felt very average. She never thought she'd stand a chance against _that_.

Upset, Christine stormed right past her locker, and ran into a group of boys who were skipping gym. Noticing her mistake, she blushed at her own foolishness. She turned around to walk back past where she'd come, when the group of boys closed ranks on her. She tried to move between a couple of them, but they stepped together, barring her path. Frustrated and nervous, Christine turned to face the obvious leader of the group; Matt. He smirked at her and stepped forward, "What's the little goody-orchestra-girl doing down here without her bodyguard?"

The guys sneered and laughed, but Christine didn't act phased, "If you'd kindly step aside, I'll be on my way back to-"

"Oh, I don't think so. You see, two of these guys got hurt last time we saw you...hurt pretty bad. I think it's only fare that, since we have the chance, we return the favor." He motioned to the group, and two of them grabbed her arms.

Christine wrenched one arm free, elbowing the boy on her left in the face, then punching the one on the right. She continued to punch solidly, hitting Matt square in the jaw. His head snapped to the side, and everybody stood still. He stepped back, shook his head a little bit, and turned away. Christine heaved a sigh of relief, thinking it was over, when he turned around a backhand-slapped her across the face, making her fall back against several of the other guys. They pushed her forwards, and their leader punched her in the face, hitting her right eye. Her glasses fell to the floor, but luckilly didn't break.

Two boys grabbed her arms again, and they pushed her down onto her knees in front of Matt. He grabbed her chin, making her look at him while he spoke. "Tell your friend that we _always_ have the last word, and my last word is 'pain'... and you'd better hope he remembers who has control here." He kicked her glasses towards her, then motioned for the guys to go. They all left, leaving a slightly shaken Christine in their wake.

----_Thanks for the reviews, everyone!!! Sorry about the lack of chapters, and how small they are; I just transferred to mobile, so I didn't have a computer to write on. Now that I do, I wanted to write a quick little chapter to tide you over for a day or so. Thank again!_


	5. Chapter 5

Erik was growing worried. It'd been nearly two days since he'd seen Christine. He knew she was at school, and he knew she was avoiding him, but he didn't know why. What had he done? He knew that a lot of the girls in school had been chasing him recently, and he hoped that wasn't what was scaring Christine away. He'd gladly tell everyone at school that he was a leper if it would make it easier for Christine to be with him. She was his best friend, and he knew that girls shouldn't come before friends... except for Christine... but she was his friend... and a girl...

He shook his head; he was confusing himself again. It had occurred to him that maybe she'd found a boy who had stolen her attention from him... but... but she couldn't have... she wouldn't! He found his blood beginning to boil at the thought of it. He didn't know why he was getting so invested in her life, but he couldn't seem to help it. She had been his first friend at his new school... but he knew that was her job. Was that all he was to her? Another lonely student? Well, he wasn't going to be a charity case to anyone. He was going to tell her that if she was ready to cut him lose, that was just fine. He didn't need her! He was going to go to her next class and confront her.

Erik stormed out of gym, ignoring the questions that his teacher and classmates were throwing at him. He walked right to the doors of the orchestra room and waited.

Christine spent all of her classes with her head hung low, her hair spilling over her face, and her nose buried in a book. The only time she had any solace was when her class watched a video and the lights were off. She didn't want to have to go to orchestra today, the guys shouldn't be allowed to see her this way. For all she knew, they had a hand in her attack.

Erik looked up from the lesson schedule he was reading to see Christine walking towards him. She had her head down, and her armful of books seemed to be pulling her forwards while her body fought the urge to skip class. She literally bumped right into him when she didn't look up before reaching the doors. Her expression of surprise was almost priceless enough to make him forget about being upset with her. But what finally did make him forget was her black eye.

She immediately looked away, brushing her hair over half of her face. After a couple moments, she glanced up at him with her one visible eye. She looked ready to cry.

"What happened?" he asked her, putting his hands on her shoulders. She tried to pull away, but he held onto her tightly. She began pounding his chest with her fists, dropping all of her books and folders on the floor. He just grabbed her tighter, pulling her against him until she stopped fighting him, and the tears began to stream down her face. He hugged her until she pulled slowly away, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and grimacing when she touched the darkened skin under her right eye.

"Please, don't ask about it... just stay away... I can't let anything..." She stopped and picked up the books she had dropped. "Just forget it... forget about being... just stop standing up for me...okay?" She shoved past him and walked into the Orchestra room, and began another class period in hell.


End file.
